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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ExoMan, post: 2038886, member: 72588&quot;]I&#039;ve sent a message to Rich that perhaps Greg might contact me.&nbsp; I can give him info on hundreds of counterstamps, if interested.&nbsp; Here&#039;s one that was listed in the previous edition but not fully identified:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]371902[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Hiram Allen Balch was born in Madison, Ohio in 1824.&nbsp; He moved to Joliet in 1849 and married there in 1850. An itinerant photographer, he traveled throughout Kentucky and Tennessee in 1859, thereafter living successively in Cairo, Memphis and Arkansas. He settled in Memphis during the war and until 1869, operating a photographic gallery there; and, subsequently another gallery in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In later years, he worked for the U.S. Census Bureau in Washington, D.C.&nbsp; (see &quot;Genealogy of the Balch Families in America&quot;, 1897)</p><p><br /></p><p>I find listings for nine examples of Hiram&#039;s counterstamp, the latest of which is dated 1857.&nbsp; So, it seems that these can be dated to 1857-58, after which he left Joliet. Hiram&#039;s travels are explained by the fact that he was an agent for the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company; listed as such by the Illinois State Journal, 1851-60.&nbsp; Like many contemporary issuers of counterstamps it seems, Hiram pursued more than one career.</p><p><br /></p><p>Craig&#039;s Daguerriean Registry simply lists Hiram as H.A. BALCH and mentions his moving to Chicago in 1855.&nbsp; If he did then &quot;move&quot; to Chicago, the later dated, counterstamped coins suggest that he afterwards returned to Joliet for a time. Interestingly, Craig lists three other daguerreians named Balch in New England and NY City, respectively; these perhaps, relatives who fostered his interest in photography.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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